Psychological and Pedagogical Aspects of the Formation of Medical Students' Speech Competence in the Process of Learning Latin

Mastering a speciality language as well as formation of world outlook and professional speech competence of future medical specialists begins at the higher educational establishment. Above all, the process of forming speech competence implies formation of stable students' motivation for improving their skills of professional communication; mastering the terminology of their future speciality. Good command of the professional language contributes to effective mastering special disciplines alongside with increasing performance efficacy and promoting establishment of business linkages. The article focuses on psychological and pedagogical aspects of the Latin language training of medical students, their speech competence being paid particular attention. Underlying Latin language training is a semantic aspect: understanding the meaning of the word and improvement of lexical basis, mastering the system of linguistic concepts in the field of grammar, speech culture, and connected monologue speech. All the speech aspects are developed and correlated in the process of recognizing language and speech phenomena. The prospects of today's health-care worker can hardly be imagined without properly formed skills of professional speech, providing means of receiving and transferring information for its further use in the professional activity. Psychological features of communicative study organization and its effect on students' cognitive motivation have been analysed, and a version of interpreting the experience of the Latin language training in view of psychological specifics of forming future medics' speech competence have been attempted. Actualization of psychological conditions of forming future medical specialist's professional speech competence is achieved due to the step-by-step development of his linguistic capabilities, provided by the reliance on the independent study, capabilities and inclinations taken into account. Besides, these conditions are associated with the understanding of the social nature of professional activity and awareness of the role of Latin language acquisition for meeting professional challenges through communicating with the colleagues and world community.